A seal assembly between a steering shaft and an automobile body should form a tight seal between the shaft and the body to seal one side of the body with respect to the other and be relatively frictionless to permit free rotation of the seal, along with the shaft, relative to the body. In addition, when it is desired to provide a frictionless bearing and seal for a telescoping steering-wheel shaft, the assembly should also permit the shaft to move axially with respect to the body.
Although bearing seals have been available in the past, these seal assemblies are generally made of a two-part construction and are not particularly adapted to provide a seal and low-friction bearing between a housing and a shaft adapted to move axially with respect to the housing, For example, the U.S. Pat. No. 4,204,718, to Bosco issued May 27, 1980, discloses a bearing assembly for supporting a high-speed rotating shaft. The assembly comprises a sleeve bearing circumscribing and rotatably receiving and supporting the shaft and a carrier circumscribing the sleeve bearing and press-fit into a housing to prevent rotation of the carrier relative to the housing. In addition, the U.S. Pat. No. 4,415,166, to Beia issued Nov. 15, 1983, discloses a bearing seal assembly adapted for use between an automobile body and a non-telescoping steering-wheel shaft. The assembly comprises a T-shaped, in cross-section, annular race circumscribing the shaft and having an integrally formed frusto-conical lip which seals against the shaft and a pair of annular rings which snap-fit together to form a cavity for housing the T-shaped race so as to provide rotation of the race relative to the rings. Although this construction is satisfactory for most applications, the seal which is relatively flexable has a coefficient of friction somewhat higher than the outer race which is relatively harder. The frictional resistance of the bearing, although relatively low and satisfactory for many applications, may nevertheless be somewhat higher then desirable for some applications such a collapsing stearing wheel columns.